For the music, it would be Mac -> Mac
OK.
Without being on the same LAN, the easiest thing to do would be to make a peer-to-peer connection using an Ethernet cable (assuming both machines have an Ethernet port). All Macs have an auto-sensing Ethernet port, so there is no need to use a crossover cable. Both machines should automatically configure an APIPA address, so you shouldn't have to worry about setting any network configuration.
From there, you could do either Home Sharing, or you could simply use the Finder to connect to the other machine and grab your files and move them over.
I'm not sure about USB options - I know that there are many special cables on the market geared toward Windows for data transfer. But typically USB is a peripheral bus, not a medium for transferring data between hosts.
Another option is to do a target disk mode connection through Firewire, which essentially allows you to make one Mac behave like an external hard drive.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode
I think those are about the simplest options that don't involve being on the same LAN or any external drives.
As far as software goes, I can't think of any reason you'd need anything other than Finder (or if you're savvy with command line options, Terminal). Basically, iTunes just lays out your music in an open folder structure, so you can just grab what you want and copy it like you would any other file.
For the photos, an iOS device, I remember Anapod, worked well, I'm trying Senuti now... Looks promising so far... Apple is annoying with their iOS lockdown bs...
Thanks cwa...
Cool. I'll be interested to hear how you make out.